Christmas Message 2013 – A Royal Baby

When good predictions are made about a person in their lifetime and they fulfil them then such a person is noteworthy. However when great predictions are made about a person millennia and centuries beforehand, and they fulfil them, then they are worthy of serious consideration. There were prophecies made about the Lord Jesus 4,000 to 400 BC which He fulfilled. What predictions were made about the latest royal baby a century ago let alone 4,000 years ago? None as far as I know.

The books in the Bible containing the prophecies about Christ and their dates are as follows:

Prophetic book

Dates Written BC {Before Christ} and as given by Thomas Newberry.

Genesis c3 & 49

4004 & 1689

Numbers c24

1452

Deuteronomy c18

1451

Psalm 2, 8, 16, 22, 35, 41, 45, 61, 68, 69,78, 110 & 132

All written during the time of David, or by David himself(1085 – 1015)

Isaiah c8, 9, 11, 28, 40, 42, 50, 52-53 & 61

between 740 and 700

Jeremiah c23 & 31

599 and 606 respectively

Daniel c9

538

Hosea c11

740

Micah c5

710

Zechariah c6, 9, 11, 12, 13

517/518

Malachi c3

397

Some might say that the Lord Jesus was a clever Man and so He read the Old Testament prophecies and decided that He would do various of them and claimed to be the Messiah. The fact that the fulfilled predictions or prophecies included aspects of His life that were beyond His control, e.g. including His nation, parentage, whose throne He would inherit, where He would be born, the attitude of people to Him in life, the adverse circumstances of His death and what type of person would bury Him, shows that such a claim is false.

There was also a prophecy made about the Lord Jesus months before His birth in Matthew c1v21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”

If that was said about anyone else the word “hopefully” would have to be added in but not with the Lord Jesus. This immense statement shows that this Person must be far greater than any other person on the earth. The reliable record in the Bible, and there are four written witnesses, shows that the Lord Jesus Christ was far greater than anyone else on the earth because He was the everlasting Son of God that came out of heaven and became a Man. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” (1 John 4v14) Jesus Christ was the greatest blessing to the Jewish nation that anyone could ever be, especially with His healing of the body and mind. In John c11v47 even the Lord Jesus enemies (Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said), with all their resources to track Jesus down and check Him out, had to say, “What shall we do? for this man does many miracles.” So even the Lord Jesus’ enemies recognized the reality of His work. Not only could they find nothing wrong with His work but they could find nothing wrong with His impeccable Person. The Lord Jesus said to His enemies, “Which of you convinces Me of sin?” (John c8v46). All they could do was raise a false accusation against Him.

While the Lord Jesus was the greatest benefit to Israel that anyone could be, His work went deeper than the healing of bodies and minds. Recently we have learned of the death of a great man, as far as this world is concerned, who is Nelson Mandela. He no doubt brought about great political change in South Africa but there is still a lot of violence and poverty there. This shows the limitations of politics. However if that society, or our society, were to turn in repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus then that society would change a lot for the better. Last century there was a town/city in South America where 64% of the population trusted in the Lord Jesus as their personal Saviour. Such was the effect of faith in Christ that the Governor of that town/city’s four prisons said that the previously overflowing four prisons all became empty.

Christ’s primary reason for coming here was so that He would save people from the wrong things that they think, say and do, which God calls “sins” and their everlasting adverse consequences or God’s judgment. Now when we start to talk about our personal sin a lot of people put up the shutters and do not want to consider this. The reason for that is because we are self righteous. However if we are honest with ourselves we will have to admit that we do think, say and do what is wrong and the Word of God is quite true when it says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory (or character) of God” (Romans c3v23).

Christ loves you and, “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” (1 Corinthians c15v3-4). With the salvation from our sins that Christ brings, He also gives eternal life with its desires and power to do and be better. Now we know how angry we can feel if some terrible deed is lightly punished or it is swept under the carpet. If we, who know what sin is, can feel angry, how much more God Who has never sinned. Our sins are the root cause of all our personal, family and society problems but Christ died to save us from them. He took the judgment for our sins when He was on the cross. So that if we repent, that is to change our minds concerning going on in sin, and believe in, meaning to totally rely on, Christ, that He paid the price instead of me then you can be forgiven of all your sins by God and look God in the face and say “Totally forgiven”! And you can with confidence look death in the face, as Ihad to do a couple of months ago, when I buried one of my younger brothers in Canada, and say “No Fear.”

Wouldn’t you love that, and know that you will be kept for time and in the life after death called eternity? One person asked, “What must I do to be saved? And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” (Acts c16v30-31).

Matthew c1v21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”